The team is a FIRST robotics team. FIRST is a national organization founded in 1989 to increase high school students’ interest and participation in science and technology.

This year, the team must create a robot that can throw Frisbees at targets and climb a pyramid.

The deadline for completion is Feb. 19. About 60 students and 20 mentors have been working on the FIRST Robotics challenge since the six-week design-and-build season began Jan. 5.

The team will compete in the Finger Lakes Regional Robotics Competition Feb. 28 and the Buckeye Regional FIRST Robotics Competition March 28.

But winning the competitions is not the only goal of the group. Students gain team building skills, school spirit and experience that they can use to get into college and in the job market.

Litteer, who plans on attending Clarkson University in the fall to study mechanical engineering, said he believes his time on the team has helped him with his entry into college.

Jeff LaFlamme, 17, also believes his work on the team will help him with college. He hopes to study mechanical engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

“We gain a lot of experience,” LaFlamme said. “This year I get to work as a student mentor and work with the younger students.”

Casey Ostrander, a mentor for the group, said many students have graduated, gone off to college and are working in engineering jobs around Central New York.

“This team gives students the opportunity to do hands-on work,” Ostrander said.

Matt Starke, a technology teacher at Liverpool, said he worked on his FIRST robotics team when he was in high school in Rochester and gained valuable experience.

“It’s a real world application,” Starke said.

Starke said he did more hands-on work on his robotics team than he did during his first few semesters at RIT. While he was in college he returned to his high school as a mentor and realized his love was for teaching. He is now a mentor on the Liverpool team.

Several graduated Liverpool students, parents of graduated Liverpool students and community members return year after and year to help with the robotics team.

The robotics team also offers jobs for students who aren’t interested in building or designing the robot. Katlyn Goode, 15, a sophomore, works on the communications team.

Goode said her strengths are being able to talk about the robot and the program at competitions and community events.

“It’s very exciting to be part of this team,” Goode said. “The competitions are the best. It’s a very exciting environment.”